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New 4A’s Publication:”Advertising Metrics and ROI: A Guide to Improving Agency Accountability and Effectiveness”

A leading marketing expert contends that “CMO” now stands for Chief Metrics Officer. Given the increasingly common client mandate to demonstrate advertising accountability and prove return on investment, the 4A’s presents, for the first time anywhere, a practical guide for agencies that:

Shows how to define Advertising ROI (AROI) by the use of key marketing metrics

Identifies the specific metrics to use in measuring each of 40+ marketing activities

Demonstrates the monetization framework for each metric

Provides a template for presenting the results in an annual Brand Stewardship Report.

Our new publication “Advertising Metrics and ROI: A Guide to Improving Agency Accountability and Effectiveness” can help agencies improve effectiveness and profitability by enabling them to become champions of accountability. The premise is that the return on investment for advertising should not be evaluated solely or even primarily on the basis of sales. Rather, as a communications tool, advertising should be evaluated on its ability to move people through a series of intermediate steps on a continuum that ranges from total ignorance of a category on one end to brand advocacy on the other.

“Advertising Metrics and ROI: A Guide to Improving Agency Accountability and Effectiveness” attempts to bring clarity to Advertising ROI through a comprehensive model that addresses four key questions:

1. Other than sales, how is Advertising ROI defined by way of metrics?

2. What is actually counted when gathering AROI data?

3. From where and how are the data collected?

4. How is each metric monetized?

“Advertising Metrics and ROI: A Guide to Improving Agency Accountability and Effectiveness” contains three major breakthroughs in the study of AROI:

A taxonomy that organizes AROI into four broad areas, 14 different categories of outcomes and more than 40 possible metrics.

A comprehensive table that answers the above questions for each outcome and metric.

An example of how the results of this process could be presented in an annual AROI Report.

The 4A’s thanks author Don L. Dickinson, Director of Advertising Management at Portland State University’s School of Business. For many years prior to becoming an educator, he was a senior partner, account director and new business specialist at a 4A’s member agency in Portland, Oregon.

Available in PDF format only, this 77-page publication is complimentary to 4A’s members; non-4A’s members price is $100.

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